Marquette Cos. proposes new 160-unit Noble Square apartment project

Marquette Cos. has announced a new proposal to build 160 luxury rentals in Noble Square.

Darren Sloniger, president of the Naperville-based developer, said that his firm has the 49,620-sq. ft. plot of land at 1326-1372 W. Walton St. and 933-945 N. Noble St. under contract with the sellers, the neighboring Polish Roman Catholic Union of America.

He said the group listened to community concerns and modified its original plan to construct a nine-story building with 266 apartments.

“After meeting with the department of planning and the Eckhart Park Community Council, we received some feedback that it was too dense, too big for the neighborhood,” he said in a report published by Curbed Chicago. “So we made the decision to ratchet it back to (better) conform with the surrounding neighborhood.” The building was reduced by four stories and almost 100 units.

The project has been designed by Chicago architecture firm Brininstool + Lynch. Clad in brick, metal, and a fiber cement known as Nichiha, the development’s “front” along Walton features 17 two-story townhouses for more of a contextualized low-rise appearance from street level.

Above, an indoor/outdoor shared amenity space with a pool deck and fitness center will be available to residents. Marquette has no plans for ground floor retail given the residential nature of the block and the fact that the retail space at the firm’s West Loop Catalyst development has remained vacant for so long. Access to the building’s 111-space garage will take place off of Elizabeth Street—which is really more of a pot-holed alleyway than a heavily trafficked right-of-way.

The development will have affordable housing set-asides per the city’s Affordable Requirements Ordinance.

Rendering perspective from Walton Street. (Jay Koziarz)

The nearly 50,000-sq. ft. development site is currently owned by the adjacent Polish Roman Catholic Union. Contrary to earlier rumors that the Depression-era PRCU headquarters and museum are in play for redevelopment, Sloniger reassured residents that this was not the case. “I tried to make an offer on the building and I can tell you it’s not for sale,” he said, jokingly.

Zoned for single family homes, the parcel would need to be changed to B2-3 Neighborhood Mixed-Use. If approvals go as smoothly as the developer hopes, the project could break ground in the spring of 2018 and open for business in the summer of 2019. Meanwhile, a different developer is working to bring roughly 40 new condo units to the neighboring St. Boniface Church.